Supermarkets are falling short in their approach to fair payment for farmers and workers in their supply chains. This is evident from Superlijst Sociaal, an annual benchmarking report scoring Dutch and Belgian supermarkets on human rights in their supply chains.
Supermarkets are well aware of the major risks of abuses such as child labour and extreme poverty in their supply chains. While they do work on fair income in the banana and cocoa supply chains, a comprehensive approach for all high-risk products is lacking. All supermarkets, from bottom-ranked Carrefour (here referring specifically to its Belgian operations) to frontrunner Lidl, must take action.
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Farmers and agricultural workers worldwide are often underpaid and, partly as a result, face poverty, child labour, and forced labour. Superlijst Sociaal is an initiative of think tank Questionmark (a Dutch think tank specialising in sustainability research) in collaboration with Rikolto and with support from Fairtrade Belgium and Oxfam Belgium. The study compares what the five largest Belgian and six largest Dutch supermarkets are doing to combat abuses in their supply chains.
Lidl is performing significantly better than the other Belgian supermarkets. This is because it maps out its high-risk supply chains in detail, such as cashews from Ivory Coast and oranges from Brazil, and addresses these risks with action plans. Colruyt (a major Belgian supermarket chain) has caught up in the rankings, partly thanks to projects in its supply chains to improve the living conditions of farmers.
Charlotte Linnebank, Director of Questionmark: "Supermarkets share the responsibility to safeguard human rights, including fair payment to farmers and workers, for all products on their shelves. As long as this does not happen, they perpetuate unfair trade. Not intentionally, but knowingly."
Supermarkets also still pay too little attention to women's rights in their supply chains. Not a single supermarket actively tackles the wage gap in its supply chains, even though they all acknowledge that women earn significantly less than men on average. Only Lidl has action plans to prevent violence against women and close the wage gap.
"It is crucial that supermarkets also apply the lessons learned to all other high-risk chains, such as coffee."
Both Belgian and Dutch supermarkets are involved in multi-stakeholder initiatives to guarantee a living wage for banana workers and a living income for cocoa farmers. Most Dutch supermarkets pledge to enable a living income for cocoa farmers for their private label cocoa products. In Belgium, only Lidl has committed to this for all private label chocolate bars, and Colruyt also sells its Boni (Colruyt's own private label brand) chocolate bars with this commitment. Transparency is also greater among Dutch supermarkets. Almost all Dutch supermarkets have recently mapped out which chains pose a high risk of human rights violations. In Belgium, only two of the five supermarkets, Colruyt and Lidl, have done this.
Download the full report available on the website of Questionmark Foundation, the organisation that initiated Superlijst.
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Supermarkets are becoming increasingly aware of which of their supply chains carry high risks. Since this edition, Colruyt has been reporting on risks of human rights violations in supply chains, such as rice from Pakistan. Belgian supermarkets have jointly pledged to ensure a living income for cocoa farmers and a living wage for banana plantation workers. This joint approach appears to be having a cautious effect on cocoa products.
Lidl and Colruyt are now selling a number of chocolate bars that guarantee farmers a living income. In February, Lidl pledged to stock only chocolate bars this year for which farmers are paid fairly. "These steps offer hope," says Jelle Goossens of Rikolto. "It is crucial that supermarkets also apply the lessons learned to all other high-risk supply chains, such as coffee."
Superlijst Sociaal is an initiative of Questionmark Foundation in collaboration with Rikolto, Oxfam Novib and Solidaridad, and with the support of Fairtrade Belgium and Oxfam Belgium.
Rikolto is a partner of Superlijst Sociaal with the support of Belgian Development Cooperation, the Flemish Department of Environment, and De Standaard.
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